We are please to announce that Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, with a total of 3,408 votes (combining the scores of both polls), is the new Grande Conservative Blogress Diva.

We are busy tabulating the totals to determine this year’s runnerup, the first ever Conservative Blogress Regent.

In honor of Claire Boothe Luce, an outspoken and witty conservative woman, we are dubbing this trophy, the Boothie.

Right now, we are reviewing the photo finish for runner-up with current results having Tammy Bruce edging out neoneocon by just six votes for Conservative Blogress Diva Regent, more commonly known as the Endora in honor of “staunch Republican,” Agnes Moorehead.

UPDATE: After consultation with our electoral advisors and given the shift from one poll to another, in a contest this close, we have decided to award the Conservative Blogress Diva Regent title to both blogresses. As one advisor said, “this isn’t a presidential election here!” While we can have only one president and one Grande Conservative Blogress Diva at a time, perhaps we can have two regents.

Maybe one could be the Endora and the other the Agnes? Here’s the trophy which Tammy and neoneocon will share:

In just a few minutes, we’ll be announcing the Grande Conservative Blogress Diva 2009.Â This year, I commissioned my friend Albert Berces, a good guy and good friend even if his politics are slightly to the left of my own, to design a logo for us.

Al, a very talented graphic artist, runs his business, Berces Design, out of San Diego.Â Â And here’s what he designed for the soon-to-be crowned Grande Conservative Blogress Diva:

Basically, we have ideas which resonate with a majority of the American people. We just need to adopt policies which promote them and not lose sight of them as have all too many of our elected leaders over the past eight, perhaps ten years.

In the aforementioned Diary, John Fund quotes Republican National Committeeman Solomon Yue of Oregon who said, “Articulating a political philosophy is equally important as applying it consistently. . . . Failing to do so, we have today’s identity crisis, which resulted in our losses in 2006 and 2008.”

Exactly.

If we articulate that philosophy, apply it, campaign on it, we can win elections. In the campaign just concluded, the Democratic nominee appreciated that better than did the Republican. Barack Obama campaigned on tax relief for the middle class and rooting out excess government spending. Not just that, voters were upset with the GOP for letting federal spending grow at almost unprecedented rate.

Note how, in election cycle after election cycle, Democrats obscure their party’s big-government philosophy. They didn’t campaign on scaling back welfare reform, implementing “card-check” labor union elections, expanding affirmative action or bringing back the “Fairness Doctrine.”Â They campaigned against the spendthrift Republicans, with some Democrats even faulting their Republican rivals for supporting the Wall Street bailout.

Should Democrats govern as Senate Majority Leader Reid and House Speaker Pelosi would like, pushing for an ever larger federal government, they will certainly turn Americans against them.Â Well, that is, if Republicans have learned the lesson of the past two elections and stand up against Democratic policies and make the case for more responsible fiscal policies.

As we finalize the designs for the logo honoring our Grande Conservative Blogress Diva, you still have one last chance to vote to designate the grande conservative dame of the blogosphere.

Remember, we define a diva as a strong woman who commands the respect of men.Â And in this case, she need not be conservative herself, but by her outspoken wit and wisdom and failure to kowtow to the politically correct, have earned the affection of conservatives.

It’s a strange world, but there you have it. I’ve been talking to friends of mine, former Palestinian Authority intelligence officials (ejected from power by the Hamas coup), and they tell me that not only are they rooting for the Israelis to decimate Hamas, but that Fatah has actually been assisting the Israelis with targeting information. One of my friends — if you want to know why they’re my friends, read this book — told me that one of his comrades was thrown off a high-rise building in Gaza City last year by Hamas, and so he sheds no tears for the Hamas dead. “Let the Israelis kill them,” he said. “They’ve brought only [t]rouble for my people.”

Something tells me this will not be an Isreali military failure this time.

There’s a Yiddish proverb that goes, “Man plans; God laughs.” Well, the Creator has certainly been laughing at me for the past four days. I expect His laughter ended today when I bought a new Sony DVD player at Best Buy for roughly half the cost I paid for my recently retired device. Indeed, if my recollection serves me, the combined cost my second (purchased in 2007) and third (purchased today) DVD players was less than that for my first one (purchased in 2001).

I had made this great plan for the two weeks of the holiday season. I would spend the first one largely alone, watching lots and lots of DVDs and considering some important career and personal issues. I would only venture out to buy and ship last minute Chanuka presents–and for a special Chanuka dinner with a close friend. After that, I would make no major purchases, save those related to my dissertation.

As I may detail in a subsequent post, in that quiet period, I had no major insights, resolved none of the issues with which I was wrestling, only reached partial resolution on one issue — and that in a chance conversation with a then-stranger, now potential friend.

Well, back to the new DVD player.

My recently retired player (all of 18 months old if that) had begun to freeze up while I was watching those Bette Davis flicks. I ended up watching a few of them on my computer. It didn’t freeze up on all DVDs, just a few. So, I assumed the defect was in the DVD, not the player. Well, last week, on Christmas Day, it froze up on every DVD I tried to load, even those I had watched previously on that machine.

So, I had to change my plans and venture out to go shopping on a week that was to be dedicated to study and writing. . . .

But, as I bought the new player, spending considerably less than I had anticipated spending, I thought of two closely-linked things, the wonder of capitalism and the disposability today of items which were once considered luxuries.

Because the Los Angeles restaurant El Coyote, long a favorite of Angeleno gays, has lost a considerable amount of business when angry gay activists chose to boycott the place because one of its employees contributed to the “Yes on 8″ campaign, I would like to organize an outing for our readers to dine at that iconic establishment.

As the restaurant lost business, it was forced to lay off a number of employees, many of them gay.

We need make clear that all gay people do not completely politicize their lives as have these angry activists.

Please e-mail me to let me know whether you prefer we do this for dinner on New Year’s Day or next Sunday, January 4.

Oh, and to encourage business, once we set the date, I’m buying margaritas for the first five people to show up!

I have this theory that if you go down any major list of the best films of all time, say the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest American Movies of all Time, you will find parallels in mythology for each film, not exact, mind you, but enough to show that the filmmakers of the last (and this) century developed themes and plots similar to stories our ancestors had been telling for generations.

The Wizard of Oz, a story of a girl’s adventures as she finds her way home, is little more than a retelling of Books 5 to 12 of the Odyssey, the part most people recognize as the Odyssey, Odysseus’s adventures as he tries to get home from Troy. Brando‘s Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront is Prometheus on the loading docks. Orson Welles‘s Citizen Kane is Oedipus–as that unfortunate Theban King’s story was understood before Freud.

I just returned from a film which borrowed (perhaps unconsciously) from the main theme of the Odyssey, that which lay at the heart of the story as the Greeks understood it, but with which people today are less familiar. Only eight of the epic’s twenty-four books focus on Odysseus’s adventures on his way home from Troy. The remaining sixteen deal with his son Telemachus’s search for his father, the story of their reconciliation and their battle with the suitors to regain his own, then to pacify his island kingdom.

It is this paternal theme to which Clint Eastwood turns in his latest masterpiece, Gran Torino. While the dialogue is at times clunky, the story lines are near perfect. Eastwood’s Walt Kowalski, the grizzled war veteran, while (unlike Odysseus) long since returned from his battles, still must rid his kingdom, er, neighborhood, of a clan of rowdy men who make it difficult, if not impossible, for a boy, on the cusp of manhood, to find his way in the world.

While Kowalski devises different strategies than did Odysseus to face his woes, like that ancient Ithacan, he uses his wits more than his strength to confront the usurpers. And that is how the mythic theme repeats itself in this recent release. It’s too soon to tell whether this flick will join any list of the top films of all time, but it is certainly one of the best films of this year.

Once again, Eastwood amazes us with his knowledge of this medium. And his understanding of the human condition–and human emotion. And once again, we see a story from the ancients retold on the silver screen.

Gay leaders are assailing President-elect Barack Obama for inviting a pastor who supported California’s ban on same-sex marriage to speak at his inaugural festivities and for filling his Cabinet without nominating any openly gay officials.

While the Warren invite received significant media attention, Obama also took flak for filling his Cabinet without nominating an openly gay person.

Chuck Wolfe, executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, criticized Obama in an interview with the Blade last week for failing to make a major gay appointment in his administration.

â€œAs we talk about either keeping or renewing America’s promise, which the president-elect has been talking about, apparently it does not yet extend to gay and lesbian people in the Cabinet of the president,â€ Wolfe said.

Additionally, Obama announced last week that Karen Mills, a venture capitalist and a founding partner of the New York-based equity firm Solera Capital, would head the Small Business Administration. The Blade reported earlier this month that Obama was considering for the position Fred Hochberg, a gay man and former deputy and acting administrator of the SBA under President Clinton.

Wolfe said Obama’s decision â€œsure is disappointingâ€ in part because during a meeting with the transition team earlier this month, gay activists were told they would be happy with the president-elect’s appointments.

Last Friday, Obama insider and spokeswoman Linda Douglass called Frontiers News Editor Karen Ocamb out of the blue, telling the longtime lesbian journalist that gays need to see the “big picture” when it comes to the Rick Warren invitation.Â

Ocamb wrote about the conversation for the Huffington Post last night, and after reading the piece, you get the distinct impression that Douglass and her boss, President-elect Barack Obama, refuse to understand why gays are so upset these days.Â The arrogance on display is simply mind-boggling.

The only bright spot about the Warren/Obama controversy, which I’ve mentioned before, is that now we know where we stand with the new administration before it has even taken over the White House. As of today, Obama has told us by his actions, gays will not stand in the way of his political agenda–no matter how valid the argument.

I wonder… if The Gays(TM) get too disruptive against the New Messiah — will they be fed to lions?

I’d like to start a clock, beginning on Jan. 20, which counts the days in which the full Democratic Government failed to overturn Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.Â Â It’d be fun, eh?

I keep forgetting to post these photos taken of PatriotManse by PatriotPartner.Â We have the outside decorating down to a science and can complete it in one afternoon.Â Â The Christmas Tree, on the other hand, requires two weekends and help from PatriotPhillyPal, Mark.

PS — It is close to 60 degrees here in Charlotte today.Â And I just had to turn on the A/C.Â

UPDATE:Â Sun came out and the Queen City is approaching 70 degrees today.Â Yee haw.

1Â In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2Â The same was in the beginning with God. 3Â All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4Â In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5Â And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

6Â There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7Â The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8Â He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

9Â That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10Â He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11Â He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12Â But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Â Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14Â And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours.

Let us all pray for peace and love for each other and for strength through these difficult world times.

Thanks to all of our readers who are a part of our unique community in the blogosphere.

Pajamas media asked me to write a piece on the brouhaha over President-elect Obama’s invitation to Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inaugural next month. So, herewith a taste of my thoughts:

Like other gay Republicans, I have been amused by the brouhaha among gay activists, bloggers (and their allies on the left) over President-elect Obama’s choice of Pastor Rick Warren, a proponent of Proposition 8 which bars the state of California from recognizing same-sex marriages, to offer the invocation at his inauguration.Â Unlike some of my ideological confrÃ¨res, I don’t see this as a sign that he has thrown his gay supporters under the bus.

If President-elect Obama’s selection of Rick Warren to give his inaugural invocation is intended to send a message to America that he will be an inclusive leader, then he has clearly made a decision that the exclusion of the LGBT community is acceptable.

I particularly like the subhead they gave the piece: “Opposing same-sex marriage does not make Warren â€” or anyone else â€” bigoted or hateful.” Though if I had my druthers, I might have added the word, “necessarily,” between “not” and “make.”

A very interesting interview I came across yesterday with Captain Steve Hall (USN – ret.), a gay veteran and former nuclear submarine commander. Hall is involved with USNA Out, a group for LGBT Naval Academy alumni. He is also the driving force behind a new documentary film, currently scheduled to premier in Summer 2009, about LGBT Naval Academy alumni and the DADT policy banning gays from openly serving in the military. This film should do much to highlight the service of these vets and I’m very encouraged by what he said about this project in this recent interview:

“When I was a midshipman, there were no gay or lesbian role models,” he said. “All we ever heard was when someone was kicked out.”

He hopes the film will help people see that gay service members exist and have achieved great things, and that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy – which requires gays in the military to hide their sexual identities or risk expulsion – is a “folly.”

“This is another way to tell our story and unveil the masks of who we are. We need to educate our fellow alumni and anyone who will pay attention,” said Jeff Petrie, the founder of the gay alumni group USNA Out, who has agreed to be interviewed for the film. “When I look back at how other minorities were treated in military history and how far we’ve come with how those people are now part of an integrated team, I know the same will be true for us one day. And I want to take advantage of every opportunity I can to move that along.” [...]

While some alumni – particularly those who were kicked out – are bitter about what happened to them, that will not be the focus of the film, Hall said.

“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure the alumni look great. We’re all products of the academy, and the academy does a really good job of developing people’s character,” he said. “I don’t want to show dirty laundry.” (Baltimore Sun)

Now this sounds like a film that is respectful of the service and one I definitely won’t miss.

With the hope that this poll will not suffer from the glitches of last year’s, here are the nominees. They’re all divas, but only one blogress can become the Grande Conservative Blogress Diva. Voting continues until 5 PM EST on New Year’s Eve at which point we’ll announce the winner and hand her her tiara. Let the cat fight voting begin!

Which blogress should be the Grande Conservative Blogress Diva 2009?

Amy Alkon

The Anchoress

Ann Althouse

Little Miss Attila

Tammy Bruce

Dymphna of Gates of Vienna

Sondra K of Knowledge is Power

Mary Katharine Ham of The Weekly Standard

Rachel Lucas

Michelle Malkin

neo-neo con

Pundita

Pamela of Atlas Shrugs

Debbie Schlussel

Sister Toldjah

Free polls from Pollhost.com

UPDATE:Â Kathy Shaidle has asked us to remove her name from the competition.Â And we have done so, having changed the poll, but having retained the tally for the blogresses remaining in the competition. We will add that to the total from the new poll. I have made a .pdf of the old poll (at the time we “published” the new poll) and have offered to share that with the contest participants.

As it becomes increasingly likely that Democrats in the Illinois legislature will not amend state law to call for a special election to fill the Senate seat of the President-elect, it appears we will have to wait until Governor Rod Blagojevich either resigns or is impeached for current Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn to select Obama’s replacement.

Should that happen, the 111th Congress would contain two Senators appointed by governors who took office when the elected governor resigned.Â So, I wonder if that has ever happened before, two Senators serving simultaneously appointed by men elected as Lieutenant Governor, but not Governor.

Some other interesting tidbits.Â In November 2010, both New York Senate seats will be on the ballot.Â We’ve seen a similar phenomenon in the two previous mid-term elections following the inauguration of a Democratic President.Â In 1978, following the election of Jimmy Carter, both Minnesota Senate seats were up for grabs.Â Sixteen years later, following the election of Bill Clinton, both Tennessee seats were.

To note:Â those were the home states of the then-incumbent Democratic Vice President.Â Both times, both seats were held by Democrats.Â Both times, Republican won both seats.*Â Will we see a repeated pattern in the (adopted) home state of the Democratic Secretary of State?Â Let’s hope so.Â Ridding the Senate of New York’s less prominent (but more partisan) Senator would be a good thing for the nation.

Or maybe to fit the pattern, Delaware’s soon-to-be-senior Senator Tom Carper will resign so Governor Jack Markell (who will take office the same day as Barack Obama) can appoint a Senator intended to be more than a bench-warmer.

Okay, I wouldn’t bet on that one.Â So, we’ll have to hope what happened in previous Democratic Administrations in the home states of the incumbent Vice President takes place in the home state of the Secretary of State.

—-

*This year (2008) may have been one of the few times when two states had both Senate seats up for grabs, with all four seats held (and retained) by the same party (this year, the GOP).Â All four incumbents, two previously elected (Thad Cochran and Mike Enzi) and two recently appointed (Roger Wicker and John Barrasso), were returned to office, in Mississippi and Wyoming, respectively.

For the past several years, Iraq has divided and polarized our parties, our policymakers and our people. The debate over the war has often been disfigured by politics and partisanship, precluding the national consensus so important to American security in a dangerous world. President-elect Barack Obama has the opportunity to end this destructive dynamic and rebuild a bipartisan consensus on American foreign policy, including the way forward in Iraq. In naming talented, principled and pragmatic leaders to his national security cabinet, the president-elect has already demonstrated that he wants to set aside foreign policy politics as usual.

Now the very capable leadership team of Defense Secretary Bob Gates, Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton and Gen. Jim Jones, the incoming national security adviser, can apply their bipartisan credentials to help the president-elect forge an Iraq policy that will garner the support of Democrats and Republicans alike.

This outcome is not yet guaranteed, even with all the success we have seen over the previous two years in Iraq. That is what makes it all the more important that Republicans and Democrats put aside the differences over Iraq that have divided us in the past. The president-elect has the chance to repair this breach in our politics by adopting a set of policies, resting on the best judgments of our commanders and diplomats on the ground, that all of us — Democrats and Republicans alike — will be able to support. We have high hopes that he will do so.